Merry Christmas

Frosty Morning

Its been awhile since I posted, all summer has gone by without one post from me updating the garden. The reason for that, is I was not able to post photos all that time, I was posting photos in their raw form, (opps :)) and kinda got locked out of the account for a bit. I think I have it all figured out now, just in time to post a picture of the frost from this morning, and few others from this week that I like.

 Naturally since its been so long I have to include a photo of Arty. He was watching his reflection in the water, and then just stared at me while I was taking pictures, it was kinda goofy and I love the pic with the garden in the background.

 Here is a shot of the Ghost peppers, aka Bhut Jolokia I grew this summer, finally got them to flower, and produce fruit. I think mother nature giving us over 71 days of 90+ degree really did the trick this year! My family was brave and tried them, brought 4 men to tears and made them drool in pain :).

Now that I have the photo problem figured out, hopefully, I will be updating with more photos from the summer and with plans for winter work to make the garden easier for next year. Thanks for stopping by, sorry for the long delay in posting, I'll get caught up!

July 4th already....

 I can't believe it's July 4th already, man, time is flying by. Spending all my time trying to figure out how to keep the garden from burning up, and keeping me and the cat cool have just made time fly. Having the hottest temps on record for June kept me scrambling to keep things calm in the garden. I did lose most of my peas to the heat, they just can't take it. The potatoes look like they will be next, but the peppers, pumpkins and squashes seem happy.

 I have a few little pumpkins on the vines, they are getting curly and doing my favorite thing running their little green viney fingers all over the garden. I love those plants.

 The okra is doing well, its happy it also seems to be happy in the heat.

 I love this small okra budding out and doing its thing, it kinda looks like a little green fist, GREEN POWER! hehehe

 The new strawberry bed is doing really really well, I am so excited about that. Can't wait! I'm hoping that it just makes itself a nice little home so that next year it can really do some magic!

The corn is also feeling the heat, but mostly I think I need to add a few more watering spouts, the sides are doing good, but the middle is pretty weak. Not sure what will come of this, but as long as I have some cool tried corn stalks for decorating in the fall it will all be good. Gotta find the good side to things for sure :) More updates coming soon as well as a few other projects I am working on. Happy 4th everyone, stay cool and safe.

Heating up outside

 Things are cranking away in the garden right now, its absolutely wonderful! The first blossoms popped up this weekend on the okra and squash, and the potatoes are flowering already! This blanket flower has mutated into kinda  a triple head, its very very cool to watch it do its thing. The stem on that one is about 3 times the size as the others as well. Nature is amazing.The temps of 95+ the next few days should help the peppers, but my poor lettuces may get wilty, I need to find a covering for them.

 All the garden beds are full now, when I am starting my seeds it always seems like I will have way to much, then as I plant, I think, hmmm, I can make more room over here. Thats how I have now ended up with 14 beds...and plans of course for more. I have decided that all squashes need their own round beds, and that some of the existing beds with the fences need to be perennial things. I had hoped to have all the beds nailed down by this summer so I could start putting in permanent stone semi-raised walls for them, but I just seem to keep finding room to add more beds, :) which is okay, I just need to take a summer and make them all permanent. I also learned this week that you can hand pollinate squash, (and other plants I am sure) I have never tried that, but it might interesting to see if I can do it.

 The peas are coming in nicely they are at least 3 feet tall now and producing many many delicious little pods. I have tons of tomato plants, including a few donor plants from my friend Marsha that are climbers. I have never tried that with Tomatoes, so it should be a learning experience for me, but I am excited for it.

 The potatoes have grown completely out of the trash can. I neighbor told me he tried it last year and it did not work so well, that they were to crowded and ended up small. he suggested that I just rip them out now and plant them in the dirt, but I think I am going to stick with this and see how they turn out.  On another horseradish note, it has now taken over the garlic, which is not cool, but since I can move the garlic at the end of the season I think that horseradish will be declared the winner yet again. I have such a love/hate relationship with that plant! mmmmm wish it wasn't so tasty!

As always, HRH Arty hung out in the shade while I worked this weekend in the yard. He is such a goof. Also want to send a shout out for prayers and happy vibes to my Cousin and best friend Lisa who lives in the Poudre Canyon here in Colorado. The canyon is on fire right now, and  we are hoping for the best. I was able to make a run up and bring home some her things just in case, but keep them, and all the residents up there in your hearts.

 This is a shot of the fire as I drove up on Thursday to get a truckload of stuff off the mountain for my Cousin and her family.

This is my Cousin Lisa, Justin, and Jordyn over there on the John Deere. They have a lovely 100+ year old cabin right on the river, my thoughts are with them and all the other family and friends in the Canyon, hang in there guys!! Much love, have a beautiful day!

Quick catch up

 I can't believe I went over a month without posting, so much has been going on that I just did not have time. Things in the yard are progressing very nicely, but I did have a few bummer things happen. The cotton I was growing died and I was not able to plant it outside this spring. I am really bummed about that. I created 5 new beds, which felt like a lot, but as I started planted all my seeds and seedlings, I realized I actually need more beds. ;) luckily there is lots of space for me to get a few little sneak attack planting spaces in. The squash and zucchini will have to be moved, so I am going to make new beds for them.

There are many things I need to get done in the yard this summer, one is a shed for sure, and greenhouse. The greenhouse may be put on the back burner for awhile, but the shed is a must. I have to many yard tools taking over the garage. My Dad is helping me figure and put in a water and drip system, which is amazing. It is such a nice relief to not have to hand water everything every morning, I've been doing that for three years, now all of a sudden with a watering system in I feel completely spoiled, and I have to admit, I love it!

 

 There are many things to update on this blog, but I am going to start small, and just cover a few things for now. The potatoes that I started in march are absolutely going crazy and already have grown to the top of the trash can. I am so excited I can't stand it! Aslo on the potato front, the ones I left in the ground started popping up through the dirt last week, I am super excited about those!

 I got some new blanket flowers for the new flower beds I created in the front yard, and this one seems to have a mind of its own. The flowers are blooming solid yellow with a tiny bit of red near the center of the flower. They are beautiful, I hope they keep this coloring. This plant is one of my favorites and I now have 3 in my yard. They are so bushy and flower all summer, they are awesome.

 

I planted 3 new rose bushes, so now I have total of 9 in the back and the one in the front yard. This photo is of last years roses blooming like crazy with this early spring we had. They are so pretty, I have pink, red, yellow, orange, white, and lavender roses growing back there. More to come on the new bushes soon! 

 I took a break from work and went to the Denver Art Museum with my friend Marsha last week, what a breath of fresh air for my heart and soul that was! I love it, not only did I get to spend time with a great friend, but the art just woke me all up inside, stirred things that have been kinda frozen inside for a very long time. This piece by Sandy Skoglund, called Fox games, was so strange that even now, weeks later, I am trying to figure out if I liked it or if it was to creepy for me. At first, when you are in the new DAM, its very overwhelming in the new space, that building has not one straight wall in it. Its like walking through an MC Escher painting. It got me kinda dizzy, and actually made me feel sick to my stomach. We nick named it the MC Escher vomit vertigo room, it was unsettling. All the walls are white, with art kinda tucked all over the place, and at one point you can look over the railings and down at this piece by Sandy Skoglund,  it just jumps right out at you. The bright red with the grey foxes against it is just so stark. You can walk through this piece, as you do, you actually cannot see some of the details, you only notice them once you are kinda out of the piece, the red almost made eyes throb. All in all, it  was a fantastic field trip,  just what I needed, wonderful time spent with a creative fun friend to get the sparks going again for my creativity, aaahhhhhh art is so awesome, love it when it moves things deep inside! 

And of course, HRH Sir Artemis loves being outside laying around in the spring sun. Have a beautiful day!

Todays Beauty

 Things go frosty last week, here's a few photos of that chilly morning!

 I have a few weeks to catch up on, but here are some shots from the last few weeks,There was a  night of chilly temps last week, luckily the soda bottle tops (in that top picture you can see them) covered my seedlings wonderfully and I did not lose any of them. It was a frosty morning, even the tulips were chilled, but it was beautiful!

 I have some new lanterns to put outside of my new tent once I get it all set up in the yard, I love purple and since the tent is purple and yellow, these will do beautifully!

 Here is a shot of the potatoes growing in the trash can, it is working beautifully! They are growing so fast, I can't wait till the end of the season to flip this sucker over and see whats growing! 

 

These are the peas that are coming up outside, they are super happy! Its my first time growing an early spring garden, but I have many things coming up out there, radish, romaine lettuce, spinach, peas, and onion! Yay for a beautiful growing spring!

 

 The above photo is horseradish that made after digging it up in my yard last weekend. I have attempted to move the horseradish twice now and it keeps coming back, which I love, but its taking over the asparagus, so I had to dig again to try to get it all. Well, after digging a 14" deep hole, its clear to me that the horseradish is like a weed, and it will take me a very long time to get rid of it all. I moved the bigger plant to another spot in the garden, and that one will now be there forever, never again will I try to move it, and if you are thinking of planting it, make sure you put it where you want it on  the first planting! Not so fun during the 3 hour dig process, but totally worth it to have fresh homemade horseradish, beautiful I tell ya!

As always, the cat follows me all around the yard, and I love that!! Have a beautiful day!

New beds and smoothy goodness!

 I dug a few new garden beds over the weekend, you can see the biggest one in the above photo, the smaller one off to the left near the pumpkin patch is harder to see. I created the big bed in the center rather then two smaller ones simply because I love the idea of creating a path through it. I am still not sure how much I like it, so I have not set any of the wood or steps in yet, once I am sure I will level it out much better and create better bounderies.  These two beds almost completes the vision for this part of the yard, after adding these I am not sure that I have many larger beds to add, perhaps a few smaller ones here and there, but this is more then enough space for one person to plant.

 I also dug up the corner of my front yard that has always bugged me. It was not very full with grass and would mostly gets weeds all summer long, and just be an eye soar. I tilled it up and added some mushroom compost, all I need to do is finish setting the stones in and plant! I also added some stones near the house if look at the right of the photo, I covered the dirt that was close to house with large stepping stones and moved the planters there. I did not like watering this close to the house, and the all the cats in the area have been marking that area, so I decided to just cover it. I do plan on planting mint and marigolds in the new area to help keep the cats away from what I will be planting, that and sitting there with the hose for awhile to spray the cats, :).

 I also got 8 new solar lights for the backyard, these are very cool, they have a star pattern that is really large and lights up a big area. I enjoyed these last night, they were only up for about an hour before sunset, and they were pretty bright, I am looking forward to seeing how bright they are after a full day of sunshine tonight.

 My lilac bush is crazy with blooms right now, so I brought a bunch in and have them in the kitchen window. They smell so good, the smell is carried through the south side of the house since they are planted right outside a window, but having some in the kitchen is always a good idea. Plus, I love looking out my window with the lilacs and the yard in the background, makes me smile. In the beds you can see in this shot, the ones with the cinder blocks, and the one to the right of that, I have all my outdoor seeds planted now. I planted leeks, onion, spinach, peas, and a few others that are just starting to pop through the dirt, it's been so warm I have not even had to cover them at night, so its a lucky spring for sure! I still  have much more to plant inside this week, so things are moving right along, Yay!

 Something new I am trying is Green Smoothies, I did not have a blender, so after doing my research I decided on the Breville Hemisphere, I spend a lot of money on it, but it was totally worth it! This thing is amazing, with a friend giving me a recipe to try, I made my first batch yesterday and it was awesome! Green smoothies have greens in them obviously, the one I made had spinach, flaxseed oil, lemon (the rind and all) bee pollen, and frozen tropical fruit. It is so good, so refreshing, you feel great after drinking one of these guys!(pardon the photo quality on these last two, took them with my iphone)

This blender is awesome, I can make lots of homemade goodies with it, can't wait to share more with you as I learn. There is a lot going on here right now, in the swing of spring, trying to get things planted and growing inside and out, its a fun time. I hope your spring is popping up nicely as well!